Shares of memory makers fell on Monday as Micron Technologies Inc. (NYSE: MU) after management warned analysts on last week of steep memory price declines.

Micron said prices for its DRAM chips would fall 15 to 20 percent in the current quarter, while its NAND flash chips would tumble 30 to 40 percent.

Micron's comments at the company's annual analyst event last Friday confirmed

what most memory market participants were already admitting, Merrill Lynch's Joe Osha told clients this morning.

The NAND flash market is in the midst of the biggest price meltdown we've seen since the DRAM market rolled over in 1995, he said.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the world's top maker of memory chips, fell to 572,000, or 2.22 percent, its lowest close since the summer.

The world's second-largest memory manufacturer, Hynix Semiconductor Inc., fell 2.22 percent to 30,800 won, losing 3.49 percent.

Micron shares were down 1.9 percent, or $0.24 cents, to $12.32 in mid-day trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Electronics